Curse of the Bane: The Last Apprentice, #2

The Spook and his apprentice, Thomas Ward, deal with the dark. Together they rid the county of witches, ghosts, and boggarts. But now there's some unfinished business to attend to in Priestown. Deep in the catacombs of the cathedral lurks a creature the Spook has never been able to defeat, a force so evil that the whole county is in danger of being corrupted by its powers. The Bane!

This was an intense and fun listen. The narrator was perfectly matched to the content and overall it was well-read.
Parental warning: With the "body-pressing" and some of the other graphically detailed descriptions in this book, I will be waiting a year or two to share it with my ten yr old daughter.

Coal Black Horse

Robey Child, only 14, must go to the battlefield to bring his injured father home. Clad in a homemade uniform, gray on one side, blue on the other, and riding a powerful coal black horse, Robey sets out on a journey that will make him a man.

The California Gold Rush and the Coming of the Civil War

In this revelatory study, award-winning historian Leonard L. Richards outlines the links between the Gold Rush and the Civil War. He explains that Southerners envisioned California as a new market for slaves, schemed to tie California to the South via railroad, and imagined splitting off the state's southern half as a slave state. Richards recounts the political battles and the fiery California feuds, duels, and, perhaps, outright murders as the state came shockingly close to being divided in two.

Paint the Wind

A puzzling photograph, a box filled with faded toy horses, and a single fractured memory are all that Maya has left of her mother. In Grandmother's house in California, she lives like a captive, tethered by Grandmother's rules: no talk of her mother, no friends, no foolishness of any kind...until a shocking event changes everything.

This was the first audio book that would actually keep my 11 y.o. daughter interested.

The story follows a young girl as she works through a myriad of adversity to find out more about her late parents, of who she remembers little. The author is quite knowledgeable in the ways of the equine and her writing imparts a lot of horse learning within the story, going as far as telling some of it through the thoughts of the main horse character.

It is well written, is fairly fast-paced and the reader does a good job with the different characters, without being too "hammy".

This is a great book for a 5 hr. car ride with a young (or old) horse lover!

The Cowboy Detective: A True Story of 22 Years with a World-Famous Detective Agency

Keep in mind that this book was written after the turn of the century. People who had made (or witnessed) some bit of history saw an opportunity to write a short memoir to supplement their income, or simply have their names remembered.

The story eventually focuses on Charles Siringo's part, as a Pinkerton detective, in the Coeur d'Alene miners confrontation of 1899. This is a fairly interesting re-telling and takes up the bulk of the audio book.

There are many names "dropped" throughout the tale, which mean nothing to the rest of the story. It takes awhile to realize that you don't necessarily need to focus on these for a "call-back" later.

The narration, which I would rate as "decent", is the most "cowboyish" part of this selection. You may need to turn up the volume a time or two to catch everything.

The Whiskey Rebellion

A gripping and provocative tale of violence, alcohol, and taxes, The Whiskey Rebellion pits President George Washington and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton against angry, armed settlers across the Appalachians. Unearthing a pungent segment of early American history long ignored by historians, William Hogeland brings to startling life the rebellion that decisively contributed to the establishment of federal authority.

This was my first audio book encounter with this portion of our American history.

I found the story somewhat hard to follow, and the narrators accent a bit of a distraction. Even so, I think it was a good purchase and I will recommend this title to friends interested in early politics of the U.S.

Last Flag Down: The Epic Journey of the Last Confederate Warship

As the Confederacy felt itself slipping beneath the Union juggernaut in late 1864, the South launched a desperate counteroffensive to force a standoff. Its secret weapon? A state-of-the-art raiding ship whose mission was to sink the U.S. merchant fleet. The raider's name was Shenandoah, and her executive officer was Conway Whittle, a 24-year-old warrior.

Civil war buffs and those interested in naval sagas should certainly enjoy this title!

This is a good all-around recounting of one of the least known, but greatest sea-going epics of the civil war.

I had read several shorter accounts of this ship, and was curious if this audio book could fill in more of the details. I was not disappointed.

The story is well told as based upon the diary of the executive officer of the ship. His "sharing" the command with an older officer leads to some interesting story lines with regards to the power struggles over the long voyage.

There are a few times when the narration seems to stall out, but this is mainly when the diary gets monotonous (as I am sure the voyage was), and it is easy to "soldier" through this portion as you await the outcome.

Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior

How is Animals in Translation different from every other animal book ever published? Animals in Translation is like no other animal book because of Temple Grandin. As an animal scientist and a person with autism, her professional training and personal history have created a perspective like no other thinker in the field, and this is her exciting, groundbreaking view of the intersection of autism and animal.

Hard Tack and Coffee

First published more than 100 years ago, Hard Tack and Coffee is John Billings' absorbing account of the everyday life of a U.S. Army soldier during the Civil War. It is written by a person who would know the material best, a genuine Civil War soldier.

I purchased this title expecting to get a plain, matter-of-fact account of the day-to-day life of a civil war soldier. I was not disappointed.

If you are at all intrigued with the civil war and would like to hear a good first person account, you can probably "soldier" through this, but keep in mind there was no attempt made to make this material interesting to the average person.

The reader was as dry as the content.

The information was very complete, which is why I give it a high rating.

8 of
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